My Road To Discovery~

I discovered that I had ADHD when my son Josh,who is now 26, was diagnosed at age 7. It certainly was a temporary relief to put a name/diagnosis on my hidden disability.  I always had wondered why I had struggled so much as a child in school ,why I couldn’t focus, and why I had to work 10 times harder than my friends to get good grades. Knowing that I had ADHD did not really take away all the pain I kept inside. It was the pain caused by my own perception of feeling totally different than everyone else.  I didn’t have answers to why I was impatient or impulsive or why I frequently felt so broken.  Having the ADHD label was now just an EXCUSE I wanted to use for why I did what I did.  What brought all the pieces of my own personal puzzle together was when I enrolled in the ADDCA coach training program. www.addca.com.  I was fortunate enough to get the education I needed to learn about the Biology of the brain and about how my unique brain wiring showed up in different situations.  How my brain is wired for INTEREST. . .how it doesn’t matter how hard I tried all those years to pay attention to something that was boring and mundane.  Even if I wanted to I COULD NOT.  My brain was not wired for boredom, monotony, or a focus of making my weaknesses stronger.  I realized that the harder I tried to focus on those kinds of activities, the more my brain would shut down.  It was not that I did not want to do it, it was that I COULD NOT do these kinds of things. By learning about the abundance of scientific research and evidence that factually validated this fact, it validated me! It helped me embrace that I was a human being with a wonderful UNIQUE BRAIN I needed to understand so I could bring that new understanding into many areas of my life. This leads me to where I am right now and more importantly. . . 

Who I am now ~
 
Part of who I am is a 54 year old mother of 3 well adjusted, creative, compassionate and independent young adult children. One of my children was diagnosed with ADHD when he was 7 years old and today at age 26 is thriving in New York City by pursuing his passion as a musician. He is currently a big part of a successful catering business that he and his younger brother have been running together.

  I found out that I had ADHD in my late thirties and have learned that my kind of ADHD shows up in challenges of the inattentive and impulsive/hyperactive type of ADHD.  I have been happily married for 28 years to an amazingly supportive, calm, very linear, organized, non-judgmental, and non-ADD husband.  We are definitely polar opposites. The Yin and Yang but that is what is also what works so well and is so perfect for us. I have the most adorable Havanese puppy named Bailey who gives me more love, no lip service or complaints and unconditionally loves me. I have learned to embrace that I am beyond generous and would literally give you the shirt off my back.  I do not have a mean bone in my body and would never intentionally hurt anyone. I know how to make people feel comfortable, and love to bring people together to do anything worth celebrating just so they can have a great time and feel good ! I am extremely creative and can brainstorm non-stop until others are tired because I can keep going.  The real essence and core of who I am is my integrity.  I define integrity as an alignment of who I am with what I do and not the other way around.  My passion is empowering others with ADHD or those who have someone in their lives they love with ADHD. I want to create a safe, nonjudgmental space for my clients’ to explore and discover who they are and who they want to become by encouraging possibilities of a better more fulfilling life.  I want them to identify and embrace their picture of purpose and passion so that they may pursue it with self confidence.  What I am so passionate about is facilitating the powerful coaching process so that my clients find and embrace their authentic self, unique strengths and align it with the joy in their heart so that they may live the kind of life they truly deserve.

Integrity ~

 What does that word mean to you? I did not actually know what the true meaning was until I looked it up a few months ago when we were doing an exercise about finding what our values are in my ADHD coach training class. Integrity means. . . the quality of being honest having strong moral uprightness, and the state of being whole or undivided. WHO you are, the values, character traits that define you, your natural hard-wired strengths. You might be wondering why I am defining integrity? What would that possibly have to do with ADHD coaching or choosing me to be your ADHD coach??? Let me tell you why . . .This was one of my defining moments or the big aha I became aware of during my coach training at the ADD Coach Academy.  During my training, I discovered that my core foundational value is INTEGRITY along with a bunch of other values that were connected to my integrity such as: honesty, enthusiasm, compassion, love, and generosity. This is WHO I am. . . these qualities that are the core of me. They are my strengths and the essence of the real me. This is what I will bring along with me and my own wonderful and unique ADD life experiences to coaching.

Who I was then while struggling with undiagnosed ADHD until I was 52 ~

 
On the outside it looked like I always had it all together. I had a million friends, always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. I had all the material things I could ever want, had a wonderful family, and a college education from a great school. I was involved in many organizations and traveled frequently. What it looked like from the outside, at least from those who know me have told me was that. . .I looked so together, confident, smart, strong, adjusted, happy and I didn’t have a worry in the world. Now I want the world to know how I really felt on the inside: I felt broken, stupid, ugly, lazy, disconnected to all my relationships, disorganized, confused, depressed, bored, and anxious. All of these strong feelings were all hidden, pushed down into the depths of my subconscious waiting to be set free. Until I identified them they would have continued to get in the way of being my real, unique, and authentic self.  In other words…WHO I really was. . . and wanted to be.



BIO~
Graduated from University of Maryland in 1979 with a BA in Interior Design
Fundraising and Event planning  for TBH/Beth El from 1984 until 2005
Fundraising for Hadassah of Greater Philadelphia 2003-2005
Community Counselor for AuPair in America  2005-2010
Graduated from ADD Coach Academy 2011 and received  AAC www.addca.com
Advance Coach Training Thru ADD Coach  Academy  

Board member of Chester County/Mainline CHADD 2012-2013
Board member of ADHD Hereos  2011 www.ADHDheros.org
member of ADDA,www.ADDA.com

Chair of Novotni Scholarship Fund for ADDA 2012
ACO      www.adhdcoaches.org
CHADD  chadd.org
co authored 365 ways to suceed with ADHD 2011  www.ADHDawarenessbookproject.com

Private ADHD Coaching Practice : Focus on New Beginnings 2011-2013

Social Chair  ADDCA ( ADD Coach Academy)  conference 2011, 2012